Overview - My Experience

I've loved painting plaster crafts and ceramics for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest childhood memories include my mother taking me and my sisters to ceramics class. I remember wondering through all of the shelves finding that special item that I could paint. I remember feeling proud knowing that no one else has created anything quite like what I had done.

My mother started us off small with things like Christmas ornaments. I remember our Christmas tree used to be full of these Christmas ornaments. Some of which I still have (with a chip here and there). Then when we got better at it we would do things a little more challenging like a small dog statue or a Christmas tree that we could put little lights inside of. Eventually we made plates and bowls. I always loved working with the paints (even glazes) to see what color combinations looked good together.

I stopped doing ceramics and plaster crafts when I was a teenager because of course I thought that I was WAY too cool for those kinds of things. I remember all of the paints my mother had bought had all dried up and she got very mad at me and my sisters about it. Then one day (after I had grown up and was on my own) I was in a craft store and saw my first plaster craft kit. It was packaged as two Christmas village houses (a church and school house). At that moment I was instantly brought back to my childhood and remembered how much fun I had painting those things. I bought the kit, painted them and went back to the store and bought as many Christmas Village plaster craft kits as I could find.

20 years later, I now have a good collection of completed items (as you can see in my pictures), but WAY WAY WAY more unfinished plaster crafts items that await my paint brush. As time has gone on and I've honed in on my painting talents, I like to pay excruciatingly close attention to every single detail of the items I paint. This means that one piece can take me from 6 months up to a year to complete.

Having a full time job, going to school full time, and being a full time wife and mother doesn't leave much time for my painting. However, when I do find the time, it is a wonderful stress relieving experience. But best of all, I have now introduced my own daughter to the love of painting plaster crafts. She loves painting her own Christmas ornaments, and we have a great time together. I hope that she will look back on these experiences as fondly as I have.